1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication terminal, and in particular, to a method for optimizing an opening and closing control of a sub-body in an automatically and manually foldable mobile communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile radio terminal is a portable mobile station that provides radio communication services to its subscriber while wirelessly communicating with its base station. Mobile telephone terminals are generally classified into two types of terminals, i.e., a bar-type terminal and a foldable terminal. The bar-type terminal with its keypad exposed to the outside, has recently trended toward less popular use owing to its exposed keypad providing no protection against any careless use. On the other hand, the foldable terminal provided with a main body and a sub-body, which is foldably coupled to the main body so that it is designed to fully cover a keypad disposed on the main body, is gaining much more popularity for its compact size and good protection for its keypad.
Conventionally, the foldable terminals are classified into a flip-type terminal, a flip-up-type terminal and a folder-type terminal. The flip-type terminal has a flip cover that serves as a sub-body for protecting the keypad mounted on a main body and concentrating a user""s voice into a microphone mounted on the main body. The flip-up-type terminal is analogous to that of the flip-type in appearance, but further featured by a flip cover capable of opening up toward the upper side of the main body. The folder-type terminal has at least one display assembly consisting of one or more Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) modules mounted on either an inside or an outside, or both, of the sub-body other than a main body of the foldable terminal.
In recent years, the need of customers for a more convenient portable terminal has given rise to a so-called automatic foldable terminal designed so as to open and close the sub-body (usually referred to as xe2x80x9cfolderxe2x80x9d) automatically as well as manually, for example, by means of driving a folder motor disposed inside the terminal. Therefore, it is noted that such an automatic foldable terminal most requires a more efficient and precise control of driving the motor for opening or closing the sub-body folder upon using of the terminal. Further, a method for optimizing an opening and closing control of the folder has been required in the state of the art.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method for making an optimized control of automatic opening and closing of a sub-body (folder) in an automatic foldable mobile communication terminal.
To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a method for optimizing an automatic opening and closure control of a sub-body folder in a foldable mobile communication terminal having a main body, the sub-body foldably mounted on the main body, a sensor means for detecting a fully open or closed state of the sub-body with respect to the main-body, a sub-body opening/closing drive unit including therein a motor, and a current sensor for detecting an amount of motor driving current applied to the drive motor, the method including the steps of:
measuring a first motor driving current detected by the current sensor before detection by the sensor means upon an opening or closing operation of the sub-body by the sub-body opening/closing drive unit, and a second motor driving current detected by the current sensor after detection by the sensor means upon an opening or closing operation of the sub-body by the sub-body opening/closing drive unit; and
determining an optimal current threshold value to be taken as a reference value for anticipating an operational state of the motor, on basis of the first and second motor driving currents measured, and applying the current threshold value to the foldable mobile communication terminal.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for optimizing an automatic opening and closure control of a sub-body folder in a foldable mobile communication terminal having a main body, the sub-body foldably mounted on the main body, a sensor means for detecting a fully open or closed state of the sub-body with respect to the main-body, and a sub-body opening/closing drive unit including therein a motor, the method including the steps of
measuring a first motor driving current applied to the motor on an automatic opening or closing operation of the sub-body by the sub-body opening/closing drive unit upon receipt of an instruction for starting a self-diagnosis operation from a user;
if the sensor means detects either one of the fully open and closed positions of the sub-body, determining as a first current value a representative one of current values measured before detection by the sensor means;
measuring a second motor driving current applied to the motor on an automatic opening or closing operation of the sub-body by the sub-body opening/closing drive unit for a predetermined time duration after detection of the sensor means;
determining as a second current value a representative one of current values measured after detection by the sensor means; and
determining an optimal current threshold value to be taken as a reference value for anticipating an operational state of the motor, on basis of the first and second current values, so as to thereby apply the current threshold value to the foldable mobile communication terminal.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the method preferably includes the steps of:
measuring a motor driving current applied to the motor on an automatic opening or closing operation of the sub-body by the sub-body opening/closing drive unit upon receipt of an instruction for starting a self-diagnosis operation from a user;
if the sensor means detects either one of the fully open and closed positions of the sub-body, determining as a first current value either one of the highest three or more values of the current amounts measured before detection by the sensor means;
measuring a motor driving current applied to the motor on an automatic opening or closing operation of the sub-body by the sub-body opening/closing drive unit for a predetermined time duration after detection of the sensor means;
determining as a second current value either one of the highest three or more values of the current amounts measured after detection by the sensor means; and
determining an optimal current threshold value from an intermediate value between the first and second current values, the current threshold value being usable as a reference value for anticipating an operational state of the motor, so as to thereby apply the determined current threshold value to the foldable mobile communication terminal.